Middle-of-the-street oak tree is mourned in North Berkeley

Haikus written by locals for the removed oak tree. Photo: courtesy Susan Orbuch

BERKELEYSIDE: “It has been my delight and my companion for the 45 years that I’ve been in this house,” said Menlo Place resident Sandra Gilbert. “And it has also long-helped to keep our street safe for our children by slowing traffic. . . I find its removal shattering.”

Gilbert is talking about a Coast Live Oak that used to grow right in the middle of the road on North Berkeley’s Menlo Place and which was cut down by the city on Thursday Feb. 20, despite protests from many local residents.

The tree, at least five decades old, and probably more, was near the intersection with Santa Rosa Avenue, with traffic navigating around it.

Or trying to.

After a truck hit the tree in December, severing a major limb, city officials deemed it too sick and weak for salvation, and a public hazard. This, in spite of an impassioned campaign by neighbors to save the oak.

The oak tree in Berkeley’s Menlo Place after it was hit by a truck and lost a limb. Photo: Ira Serkes

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